Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros

Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros (1436-8 November 1517) was a Spanish cardinal and statesman. He founded the Complutense University of Madrid and worked with King Ferdinand II of Aragon to bring Spain into its golden age of 1500-1700.

Biography
Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros was born in Torrelaguna, Castile in 1436, and he was a member of the secular clergy before becoming a Franciscan friar in 1484. He changed his baptismal name of Gonzalo to "Francisco", and he lived a rigorously ascetic lifestyle for the rest of his life. In 1492, he was made Queen Isabella of Castile's confessor, and he advised Queen Isabella to expel the Jews from Spain shortly after becoming her confessor. In 1495, he became Archbishop of Toledo, and he became a religious reformer, an occasional regent, Cardinal, Grand Inquisitor, promoter of the crusades in North Africa, and founder of the Complutense University of Madrid. He had all of the Arabic manuscripts of Granada burned and, in 1500, he reported that everyone in Granada was Christian, and that all of the mosques had become churches. In 1505, he funded an expedition that captured Mers El Kebir in northern Africa. In 1516, upon King Ferdinand II of Aragon's death, he became regent for King Charles I, and he fixed the seats of the courts at Madrid and created a standing army. In 1516, he oversaw Spain's attempt at conquering Navarre, and he died in 1517 while attempting to meet King Charles as he arrived in Asturias from the Habsburg Netherlands.